March 22 (Reuters) - Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure,
whom renegade army officers said they toppled in an overnight
coup, had gained the nickname of "Soldier of Democracy" in his
West African state and was preparing to cede power after
elections later this month.

But he is no stranger to coups or mutinies.

Toure, 63, a former paratrooper popularly known by his
initials "ATT", had himself seized power through arms in 1991,
overthrowing military ruler Moussa Traore after the latter's
security forces killed more than 100 pro-democracy
demonstrators.

But he quickly earned domestic and international acclaim by
organising polls the following year and a democratic handover to
an elected civilian president in the Sahelian country, Africa's
third largest gold miner and a major regional cotton grower.

Swapping his paratrooper's red beret and fatigues for
flowing civilian robes and a Muslim bonnet, he returned to
Mali's presidency through the ballot box in 2002 and was
re-elected for his second and final five-year term in 2007.

Already hailed as a respected African statesman and
peacemaker following his 1992 democratic handover, he was called
upon in 1997 to broker a reconciliation between mutinous and
loyalist troops in the Central African Republic.

But these conciliatory skills appear to have failed him with
the young soldiers of his own army who announced in a televised
statement early on Thursday that they were "putting an end to
the incompetent regime of Amadou Toumani Toure".

Government and military sources said Toure had left the
presidential palace before the mutineers entered it and a
defence ministry source said he was in a safe place, but his
whereabouts were unknown.

Disgruntled members of his army had for weeks complained to
Toure's government that they did not have adequate weapons to
fight a northern rebellion by Tuareg-led rebels whose ranks were
swelled by well-armed, combat-hardened veterans who had fought
for slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Toure last month faced demonstrators in the streets of
Bamako protesting against what they said was the government's
ineffective response to the advancing rebellion.

The president, true to his conciliatory spirit and
nationalist vision, had appealed to Malians to avoid falling
into ethnic strife, telling inhabitants of the south not to
carry out reprisal attacks against Tuaregs living there.

He had also insisted that Mali would hold its presidential
election as scheduled in April, despite the Tuareg rebellion in
the north. "We are already used to holding elections during war,
and during Tuareg rebellions," he said.

His government had firmly rejected the rebels' goal of
outright independence for three northern regions.

BULWARK AGAINST RADICALS

Western governments long wanted Toure to act as a bulwark
against the infiltration southwards of al Qaeda's North African
franchise, but he failed to stop militants finding refuge in the
desert wastes and hills of Mali's lawless remote north.

The Malian army has received counter-terrorism training from
the U.S. armed forces. On Monday, West Africa's top regional
decision-making body ECOWAS urged member states to back Mali
with military equipment to fight the northern Tuareg-led rebels.

Unlike several other long-ruling African leaders over the
last decade who have defied pro-democracy critics to secure
amendments to their national constitutions to extend their terms
in office, Toure repeatedly said he would not do this.

With his country held up as an example of democratic
transition in an unruly West African region with a history of
coups and military mutinies, Toure knew how to woo western
governments and aid organisations.

"My ambition is to write a new page in our country's history
... to make our country a model of good governance in a peaceful
climate, a Mali able to give as much as it receives," he said in
a newspaper interview in 2002.

Apart from often acting as a mediator and peacekeeper on the
troubled continent, he also worked on humanitarian projects with
international figures like former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

His best known campaign was to wipe out Guinea worm, a
tropical parasite that causes debilitating infections.

During his rule, he also declared housing, roads, and
modernising the country's agriculture as his priorities.

Although his dry, largely desert country remained heavily
dependent on international aid, Toure said that aid was not
enough and that Mali could not depend on donor cash for ever.

But he never forgot his military roots. He had received
military training in the Soviet Union and France.

"Above all I am a soldier: I signed a contract to give my
own life to the army, and therefore to Mali," he said in 2002.

And in turbulent West Africa, a soldier's fate can often
mean being toppled by your own troops.